Consumer Tech
I write about tech that matters: From Femtech to accessibility.

Empty wheelchair on the street

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This morning, the Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) filed a federal lawsuit against Lyft at The United States District Court for the Northern District of California. According to the complaint, the San Francisco-based ride-hailing app excludes persons with mobility disabilities who need wheelchair-accessible vehicles (WAVs) in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"While Lyft has an 'Access' mode on its app, it does not connect folks in the Bay Area to Lyft vehicles that are wheelchair accessible,” said Stuart Seaborn, the Managing Director of Litigation for the Disability Rights Advocates, in an exclusive interview. “Rather, it directs them to paratransit and other non-comparable, outside services."

This is not the first time the DRA has filed a complaint against Lyft, which just started meeting with investors for its IPO roadshow.

“Our clients, which include two Bay Area disability organizations (Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco and Community Resources for Independent Living), have been raising the issue of the lack of wheelchair accessible vehicles with Lyft for over a year,” added Seaborn.

In March of 2018, the DRA filed an action in the California State Court challenging Lyft’s alleged failure to modify its practices to accommodate people who need WAVs. According to Seaborn, however, the state court declined to hear the matter, noting that the California Public Utilities Commission had jurisdiction over the state law claims.

Since then, the DRA and its clients have continued to advocate for the need of accessible vehicles in the Bay Area, but without much success it seems. Lyft has not responded to a request for comment on this matter.

According to this morning’s filing, “Lyft’s practice of excluding persons with mobility disabilities who need WAVs violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

The DRA’s clients do not seek any monetary damages, Seaborn said.

A Bigger Problem

The issue of disability discrimination does not pertain to Lyft alone. Uber, its larger rival, has also been slammed with a federal lawsuit for disability discrimination, Seaborn told me. The DRA filed a complaint in October, which accuses Uber of not deploying enough WAVs in its Bay Area fleet. The DRA confirmed that the lawsuit is ongoing and an amendment was filed in January. Uber declined to comment after publication.

Other ride-hailing apps, such as Juno and Via, have also been called out on this issue in a report published last May by the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

Although there have been some mild efforts made over the last few months to improve accessibility (Uber reportedly added more WAVs to some of its fleets last November), the progress has been slow.

Dorene Giacopini, the President of the board of Community Resources for Independent Living (CRIL), who is herself in a wheelchair, wrote in an email:

I have never been able to access a wheelchair accessible Lyft or Uber in the Bay Area, and everybody I know who uses a wheelchair knows these services are not available to us. That needs to change. These companies need to comply with their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

Giacopini goes on to explain that the problem is twofold: Although companies like Uber and Lyft claim that they are making it easier to get around with their on-demand services, they are actually making it harder for people in wheelchairs.

It used to be much easier to get accessible taxis, but ridesharing companies have put a lot of taxis out of business, including accessible taxis. Meanwhile, we are being totally ignored by these companies that claim they are making transportation more accessible.”

The (Bumpy) Road To An IPO

As the IPO season comes into full bloom, companies are embarking on the traditional roadshow to meet with investors, which ultimately leads to the pricing of shares. Lyft is scheduled to go public by the end of the month and reportedly said that it aims to raise up to $2 billion in its IPO at a fully diluted valuation of as much as $23 billion, which includes restricted stock.

On its end, Uber is planning to kick off its IPO in April, according to Reuters. It has been valued by investment bankers at as much as $125 billion.

The two ride-hailing companies have been locked in an ongoing arm-wrestling contest for years, mimicking each other’s moves. What’s surprising here is that neither has taken the opportunity to make their on-demand service truly accessible to people in wheelchairs. As they were prepping for their long-awaited IPOs, either one could have made a major push to dramatically increase their fleets of WAVs in the Bay Area, thereby gaining a competitive edge over the other.

The real question here, however, is: Do investors care?

“This problem isn’t impossible to solve,” added Giacopini. “These companies are providing accessible service for people who use wheelchairs in some cities. They need to start providing it on their home turf in the Bay Area.”

The irony here is too big to ignore. Both companies are based in San Francisco, the global hub of innovation and Mecca of hacks and disruption. Yet the simplest hack has been overlooked.

“Seeing as Lyft has the capacity to offer incentives to its drivers, we have suggested that it offers incentives to drivers who utilize wheelchair accessible vehicles,” concluded Seaborn.